DIRTY PAIR: PROJECT EDEN - you'll have a blast (really!)

I've been a long time anime fan, going all the way back to Speed Racer in the sixties (well, I caught it in reruns in the early seventies - I'm not quite THAT old yet), Star Blazers in the late seventies, Robotech in the early eighties - so I have a soft spot for old school anime like this. There's been dribs and drabs of Dirty Pair (and it's sister series, Crusher Joe) released in America, but this is the first time we get a release of one of the better Elder Statesmen of Anime.

Dirty Pair? What's that - let me quickly explain. The year is the twenty-second century and humanity has spread across the sea of stars and the World Welfare Works Association (also known as the WWWA or 3WA) assists member systems of the United Galactica federation deal with various problems and situations that normal police or security forces find themselves unable to handle.

This is where Kei and Yuri come in - a team of troubleshooters codenamed Lovely Angels. Highly skilled, very competent and downright sexy, the Lovely Angels have another name, one that's a little less flattering - The Dirty Pair - thanks to their reputation for leaving a wide trail of destruction behind them wherever they go.

This time, Kei and Yuri are tasked to investigate the planet Argerna, a major source of Vizurium, an element essential in warp drives. The production and refining facilities are being sabotaged and the Vizurium output is dropping dramatically. During their investigations (and between occasional baths) the two cross paths with Carson D. Carson, professional thief and all around letch. After adventures with guns, handcuffs and towels just barley covering nubile bodies, the trio run afoul of Doctor Wattsman, the mad scientist behind everything that's going on.

Using his vast Mad Scientist intellect, Doctor Wattsman is hard at work unraveling the genetic code of the fossilized creatures that make up the Vizorium (think Dinosaurs and Petroilum), attempting to make them the next evolutionary step in the human race. Can the Dirty Pair (plus one) stop Doctor Wattsman before his mad schemes come to a head - and will anything be left of the planet afterwards?

Coming from 1987, the animation style is a bit rougher than what you get in your modern anime series, but it's still pretty fluid and smooth. And Project Eden comes to use before the dawn of CGI animation running anime left right and center - we get nothing but ink and paint here. That right there is a huge plus in my book.

The plot is a bit - well, shall we say simplistic and disjointed. There's a strong opening that's very reminiscent of a classic James Bond flick but once the pair get to Argerna, the story starts to wander and stutter with some random fan-service moments. Still once we get past the middle bits, the show picks up again for the climax. Plus you can spend time picking out all the intentional tropes and homage's to other science fiction franchises and other anime series.

THE DVD -
Being such an old feature, I was shocked how good this thing looked! There's the occasional scratch here and there, but the colors look great and the print is solid. As an added bonus, ADV gives us the original 1.85:1 ratio anamorphic widescreen. We get a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo English dub or the original Japanese soundtrack with English optional subtitles. While I went with the Japanese language track, the American dub was actually pretty good. I could sit through it without cringing or running from the room.

THE EXTRAS -
We get the original theatrical trailer for Project Eden, and a bunch of ADV trailers - Blue Seed Beyond, Dirty Pair: Flight 0005 Conspiracy , King of Bandit Jing, RahXephon, Angelic Layer and City Hunter Season 2 (A wicked cool series if you've never seen it!) The only other item in the package is a 1 page leaflet with a list of chapter stops on it.

THE BOTTOM LINE -
It's a bit goofy, and more than a bit gratuitous with the sexy, but Project Eden (and Dirty Pair as a whole) is a whole lot of fun. If you're not put off by the mid eighties primitive-ish animation, you'll probably have a blast. (Wait - with Kei and Yuri on the job, you're sure to get blasted!)